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Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS)

Origin of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV/AIDS)

The suggestion that human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the AIDS virus, originated as a result of inadvertent innoculation of an HIV-like virus present in monkey kidney cell cultures used to prepare the polio vaccine is one of a number of unsubstantiated hypotheses.

The weight of scientific evidence does not support this idea, and there is no more reason to believe this hypothesis than many other which have been considered and rejected on scientific grounds.

Since the 1960s, billions of doses of oral polio vaccine have been delivered worldwide, and no association with HIV infection has been recorded.

Page last reviewed: October 22, 2007 (archived document)
Page last updated: October 22, 2007
Content source: Immunization Safety Office, Office of the Chief Science Officer
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